The Challenge

To promote Bravo TV’s new series BUYING IT BLIND, NBC wanted to do something BIG that would capture consumer and media attention outside of the standard media buy or OOH placement.

The Strategy

OOH media is often imagined in the confines of what is available, and limited to ‘available real estate.’ At the Bait Shoppe we like to break the rules, so we set the ambitious goal of creating our own OOH real estate!

The Execution

The show BUYING IT BLIND follows the journey of home buyers who are willing to take a leap of faith and actually buy a house BLIND! Well, we took the show concept quite literally and hid 3 actual homes under massive structures in New York, LA and Chicago to create BIG, SPLASHY OOH placements. The ambitious project, required finding actual home sellers and convincing them to allow us to cover their entire home with eye-catching designs in-line with Bravo’s bright, colorful premium look and feel. The homes had to have plenty of natural foot traffic to capture maximum earned media and all the necessary sign permits needed to be negotiated with the cities and neighborhoods. Once the homes and permits were secured, over 48,000 square feet of fabric was printed, cut and sewed to exact measurements to show the unique contours of each home. The team, then had to reverse engineer custom rigging in order to ensure the home wraps did not become massive wind sails and lift the homes off the ground! The results were arresting and a true never-been-done.

To further drive foot traffic, locally targeted promoted social posts drove people to see the hidden homes for themselves and share to social. The hidden houses, now acting as life-sized ‘BUYING IT BLIND’ ads, were featured as promoted properties on Zillow and additional digital advertising like banners and page takeovers drove viewers to tune-in. Far more effective and targeted than any OOH real estate could offer, the program was a massive success both on social and with earned media.

You’d go on a blind date, right? But would you buy your home blind? We found out!